Many managed healthcare providers offer their members discounts on prescription drugs. However, only a few managed healthcare providers also offer their members discounts for Over The Counter (OTC) drugs. Therefore, it is common for members to go to the emergency room for ailments such as runny noses and coughs. These visits and often the pharmaceuticals prescribed in those visits are typically very expensive and are often covered by the managed healthcare providers.
It is believed that many of these visits and their associated costs could be eliminated if the members were given a fixed monthly dollar amount to spend on OTC products, such as OTC cough syrups, antihistamines, aspirins, etc. The few managed healthcare providers that offer OTC benefits to their members have traditionally attempted to accomplished this using paper vouchers or forms that were given to the members and redeemed at the retail stores. These traditional methods were often fraught with mistakes and did not provide the ability to offer any reporting capabilities associated with the methods.